Chanuka Torch Will Be Brought to New York and Taken to Los Angeles

A Chanuka torch kindled at the grave site of the Maccabees at Modin, will be carried tomorrow to New York by air where it will be picked up by local Maccabean and other groups for celebrations beginning next week, it was announced. Shlomo Vieder, an El Al purser who belongs to the Maccabee Sports Club, will carry the torch from Lydda to Kennedy Airport. Vieder was wounded last Sept. 6 in a gun-battle with two Arab hijackers aboard an El Al plane over Britain. A flame from Vider’s torch will be picked up at Kennedy Airport by youths from Los Angeles. They plan to bring it to their city for a “candle-light walk on behalf of Soviet Jewry to take place Dec. 22, the first night of Chanuka. It will be carried by relays of runners and by plane and automobile provided by Massada, the youth group of the Zionist Organization of America. In Los Angeles, participants in the candlelight walk will bring the flame to the steps of City Hall for a brief ceremony involving the lighting of a “Menorah of Freedom.”